I appreciate the extra length to start to describe part of the problem, because the Minister got right to the point where I need to be, which is owning an asset is detrimental to being independent when you are struggling to get by. In other words, if you have a house and you have a mortgage and you can’t go to income support for help… As the Minister said, three times in your lifetime. There are a lot of people who struggle every single winter to pay for that power bill, that heating bill and certainly the high cost of food. That is the policy I am asking the Minister. Would he be willing to revisit this policy to see if we can make it work in such a way to help the working poor survive every winter, every day? Thank you.
The Income Support Policy states that it is a top-up for those low wage earners in the Northwest Territories to assist them in whether it be the heating bill or light bills, necessary expenses that are before us.
Again, this particular Income Security Policy has been amended in the past. We are certainly looking at those changes as necessary to meet the needs of the Northwest Territories. We have those clientele that have accessed our income security within our system so they have qualified through the Mortgage Subsidy Program up to three times in their lifetime. We do assist as best as we could, where it is badly needed and especially during winter seasons. We deal with other subsidies, as well, Seniors Fuel Subsidy Program and so forth. We will continue to assist in those categories. Mahsi.
Respectfully, of course, we are speaking more beyond the one time in your lifetime three months of mortgage payments. We are speaking about annual problems, yearly problems that come up every year, the high cost of oil, the high cost of electricity. I asked the Minister for advice on this particular problem. How does he see us getting to a point where we can amend the policy to help those who are working poor who just need a couple hundred dollars through the winter months to get by, because if they own a house they’re told by income support sell your house, sell your assets, come back on the system and we’ll take care of you. What type of independence are we supporting? Thank you.
As I stated, we try to assess those individuals who are struggling with their payments as best as we can as income support clientele. As you know, income support covers the Northwest Territories with the 33 communities that we service and we cannot cover all mortgage payments, but we do cover to some degree some payments so they can get by through a couple of months or during the winter transition period. So we do assist those clientele as best we can according to our Income Security Policy. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
I think we’re still at a crossroads here. I’m not just talking about the mortgage payment; I’m talking about the fact that many people have a struggle every month, all through winter. I can speak to even a specific case, if I may, is I know one particular family uses their credit card every month throughout the winter to survive, to pay for the oil, to pay for the food, to help pay for the electricity, and they hope for a good summer to be able to get by to balance them out. This is a terrible way and any financial advisor would tell you that’s a terrible way to be doing business.
So I’m asking income support, can they find a way to amend the policy so we can help families and protect families like this and help ensure that their independence exists. Thank you.
That is what we’re doing. We’re topping up the wage that they’ve earned, and if they can’t get by on certain months, we do assist them. They have to fit the criteria, as well, where how much they make per household and how many children they have and so forth, and the cause of the factors as well. So we are subsidizing those individuals that are a pressing need for the Northwest Territories.
We realize there is a high cost of living in the Northwest Territories, so it’s all based on that as well. So income support we always say is just a last resort, because we want to have independence in those individuals. So we try to assist them to make productive choices and so forth. So we’ll continue to strive for that. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Minister of Justice for his statement today on the Corrections Northern Recruit Training Program and I’m happy to see this happening in Hay River for the next intake.
With the new justice bill in Ottawa, Bill C-10, that will increase the number of mandatory sentences, incarcerations. I could have sworn on the radio this morning I heard the Justice Minister say that if this came about, they would have to build an addition on to the North Slave Correctional Centre. We’re talking here about disparity in the distribution of wealth. I want to talk about the disparity in the distribution of government resources, jobs and programs.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Justice, is there a plan at this time anywhere on this government’s books to put an addition on to the North Slave Correctional Centre. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
---Interjection
Minister of Justice, could you repeat that again, that’s not on the record.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No. No, there isn’t.
That’s indeed welcome news. If there is a need for additional correctional spaces in the Northwest Territories as a result of this new federal legislation, will other communities other than Yellowknife be considered for expansion of a facility? For example, the South Slave Correctional Centre in Hay River. Thank you.
I believe there are already plans in the works to put a new facility in Fort Smith. As far as a male facility, there are no plans at this time and we would be open to discussion. But North Slave Correctional Facility was designed to have a pod added on to it, so it may prove to be the most cost-effective place to add on to male facilities in the Northwest Territories.
I’m aware of the construction of the North Slave Correctional Centre and the anticipation that there may be a need for expanded services in the future and the ability to add on a pod. However, may I suggest, in Hay River there is lots of land, lots of affordable land, lots of affordable construction prices per square foot and I would like the Minister to confirm that all potential locations in the event of more spaces being required will be analyzed very carefully and that Hay River would be in the running for such an expansion. Thank you.
That would be the financially prudent and responsible thing to do, so that’s what we would be doing. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you. We’re always happy to hear about financially prudent decisions. We’re also very interested in politically prudent decisions and one of those areas has got to be in looking for opportunities to distribute the wealth of this government into regions, communities outside of Yellowknife. So hopefully there would be some political consideration brought to bear along with the financial consideration.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker: My question today is to the Minister of ITI and as my Member’s statement indicated, one of the factors in poverty is job creation and I’m just wondering what ITI has in the future for job creation in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of ITI, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Members got together after the election and set a course for the next four years through a priority setting exercise. Obviously, through that exercise the economy ranked very high. I think getting jobs and opportunities for people should be a primary focus of this government. That focus should be on the smaller communities where there are high levels of unemployment. Those types of jobs for folks in the small communities and the regional centres are going to be arrived at through development of one form or another, investment in infrastructure, mining and resource development. That’s where I see the future job opportunities for people that live in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
That’s great to hear. The other question I had is: Does the department have any plans to increase any small business creation to create those jobs as well?
That’s an area that the last government spent a great deal of time on. There was some additional funding put into the SEED Program and that’s something, as we move forward and work through the business plan for the upcoming year and the next four years, is a discussion that we will have to have with committee and Regular Members of this House to determine how that should happen. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement today I talked about how we can get more people into the workforce. One of the problems is that even where there are jobs, they go to people from outside the Northwest Territories instead of Northerners. My questions are to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. What tools does the government have now to make sure that NWT residents get first priority for jobs in the Territories, whether those jobs are with government or industry? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of this government’s overall goals and objectives are to work on decentralizing to the regions. Part of that is to have qualified people from the regions and from the communities. Of course, we’re always pushing for the education system into the communities and into the regions so we can have more qualified people from our regions so they can tackle all of those job opportunities that will be coming out, whether it be the pipelines or government jobs or community government jobs. Not only that, we also supported the Small Community Employment Support Program out of this Assembly. We’ve increased the funding so we’re promoting more community-level job opportunities. We’ll continue to do that, along with the mining industries, the Mine Training Society and Aurora College. We all have partnerships in place. We need to promote more of that at the community level.
Are there any other options the government can consider to make sure that Northerners are top priority when it comes to hiring?
Yes, there is. Again, our overall goals and objectives of this government have highlighted those community employments as a priority for us. Not only that, but through my Department of Education, Culture and Employment we have a Labour Market Agreement that we provide training and services to the small communities and we’ll continue to do that. There is a training opportunity in that manner, in that fashion. Not only that, again reiterating the partnerships we have with the communities, with the mining industries, we do have a quarterly meeting with the industry representatives as well. We want to create more opportunities for these individuals, but we have to keep in mind that those individuals need to be trained and qualified for those positions. That is our goal as this government.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no doubt in my mind that the North boasts some of the most generous individuals and businesses that help support our most hardworking NGOs and registered charities in the North. Many of those NGOs and charities are with us here today, listening to our strategies on anti-poverty. However, in a lot of cases, small businesses and medium-sized businesses would love to contribute to a lot of these NGOs and charities only they can’t. They can’t afford to do so.
Because this is anti-poverty day I have a question for the Minister of Finance. Would the Minister of Finance consider a business tax incentive for poverty?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re willing to look at all opportunities and alternatives as it pertains to dealing with a lot of our issues and our financial situation which, as the Member knows, is somewhat restricted at this point in time. I’d have to hear more in terms of specifics from the Member, but it would be something that I would be more than happy to appear before committee to talk about.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s response that we look into it and I appreciate the fact that money is tight. A further supplemental to that same question is sometimes businesses can’t afford to give money but they can give in-kind. That, too, would have a tangible effect for NGOs and registered charities to get the good work done that they need to do. Would the Minister of Finance consider, as well, equally in-kind tax incentives for, say, poverty?
As far as I know, once again, most of the NGOs who are in this business have charitable status and can issue tax receipts for donations that will address some of the issues the Member raises. Once again, if the Member has a number of these alternatives and they may be linked, then I would be making the commitment that I’m more than happy to appear before the committee to talk about those.
No further questions, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Premier and the Minister responsible for the Executive. I wish to follow up on some of the questions that were asked previously. In answer to one of my colleagues, the Premier mentioned that, he gave us quite a list of activities that the previous government has undertaken. I can’t say that I totally agree with the list that he put out there. Some of the work, I think, that was listed was done by our wonderful NGOs. My first question to the Premier is to ask about a consultation that was done sometime within the year of 2011. Members were given a report at the very end of the 16th Legislative Assembly. I’d like to ask the Premier when that consultation that was done in 2011, prior to the beginning of this Assembly, when will that be shared with the public.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The report that was prepared was called “What We Heard” from Northerners About Poverty and this report was provided to Standing Committee on Social Programs in August 2011.
I don’t like to correct my colleagues but I think the Premier should well know that reports going to standing committee are not public. This report, in my mind, has never been to the public and there are many interested people in the gallery and elsewhere in our territory who want to know what was in that paper. I think I have to express some of the disappointment, as well, that some of the people in the gallery I suspect are feeling at the moment. The Premier mentioned by mid-2012 he expects that we will have a draft Anti-Poverty Strategy. Really, in the previous Assembly there was a commitment to a discussion paper. The Premier mentioned it when he did his list of activities. I would like to know from the Premier who is involved in the preparation of this draft Anti-Poverty Strategy.
As I indicated in response to a number of questions, we have had in place an advisory committee on poverty. We have an intergovernmental working group. We have held consultations from January to April 2011. We have been to every region in the Northwest Territories. We’ve had 30 focus group sessions in 13 communities and we are looking at a strategy that would apply NWT-wide. We have developed a broad discussion paper that was based on What We Heard in the communities. We are now having a group of deputies that are taking the discussion paper and taking what we heard in the community consultations, and also taking into account the priorities set by this 17th Legislative Assembly, and on that basis they will be developing a draft, recognizing the business planning schedule for this government for the fiscal year 2012-2013.
I have to say now that I’m even more dismayed than I was before, that the paper that was given to standing committee at the end of the 16th Assembly can be considered a discussion paper. This is absolutely incorrect, in my mind. That was a report of what people had said across the territory; it was not a paper which is able to go out and be discussed by Members and by the general public. I’m also totally dismayed that we are going to have a draft strategy produced by a working group of bureaucrats. I have no fault with the skills of our bureaucrats, but it’s been well documented that any draft strategy has to involve other people. It has to involve those in the public, it has to involve those in poverty, it has to involve NGOs, it has to involve business. I’d like to ask the Minister is there any opportunity in the development of this draft strategy by our bureaucrats, is there an opportunity for all those people that I’ve mentioned, to also have input into this strategy.
